RetroArch Reviews

by Richard12718

Was working great til I tapped “don’t show load core” (as i kept accidentally hitting it And you don’t need to select a core once you already have your playlist). Well it immediately booted me out of RetroArch and anytime I try to open it it immediately does the same thing, crashes. Worst thing is when I go to my settings it now acts like it’s not even installed. Can search it in settings and nothing pops up. So it won’t launch and I can’t even uninstall and reinstall it. The interface is extremely confusing and legitimately the MOMENT I got it super cleaned up, everything hidden and streamlined and was about to start playing my roms this happened. If this is fixed it’s instantly a 5 star app but right now it’s stuck in purgatory on my phone lol

by Joe's Reviews 1

No way to assign controller profiles that I can see. The the right button (in my case the circle button) is select and the back button (in my case the x button) in the menu with no easy way to change it. Saving control remaps doesn't actually apply when I disconnect and reconnect with my backbone controller. Even after chsnging the amount of ports to just one and remapping that one port.. It doesn't change anything both in game and in the menu.

by DJ-Keebz

Powerful app but the UI is frustrating. There is no “reset all defaults” option. There are far too many options for your average user. These things should be hidden in “advanced” menus instead of easily (and accidentally) modifiable by people who will never want to modify those things. Options aren’t where you’d expect them to be. There are redundant menus.
The touch controls look ugly compared to Delta and have no haptic support.
This could be a 5 star app but this app in general needs to vastly improve its user experience on all platforms.

by Hood-E

First of all, let me just say I love RetroArch. Mobile games can be such a pain and hidden gems among them can be really hard to find, so what’s the solution? Emulators! I’ve used a lot of them in my time and this is one of the best. Of course, this is a frontend, but as an emulator it really works! The only problem is that the audio has been doing this thing where it slows down and starts cracking like something in a meme video, and it’s a real pain. The music of a game is a big part of the experience for me, and if I can’t enjoy it with the audio problem it just sorta ruins it. If you guys at the development team can solve my problem, that would be freaking awesome(I’m using an iPhone SE btw). Please take every thing I said into consideration, thanks!

by Mcmilli92

RetroArch works great but it’s missing key features like GameCube and ps2 emulators and the ability to set custom resolutions. There is an option to up the resolution a little bit but it’s shallow compared to most other emulators. I know it just came out for iOS but this would probably be the best next step. I’m just happy we’re finally getting emulators on iOS.

by HammerLammer55

I was so exited when I saw this then it just crashes when I try to load a rom

by PumpkinKing456

This emulator works perfectly, even though I had to tinker around with the settings to get the PSP games running at a reasonable speed.

by Benmully74

Is it just me or is everything running incredible fast?! I can see no option to run at normal/default speed?

by XMattForever

I only have two issues with this emulator

1. Controllers can’t be adjusted based on what gaming system you use meaning you can have far more buttons than you need. Thus taking up way more screen space than you need

2. The emulator seems to want to randomly fast forward your progress in games. Obviously this is better than the game freezing or crashing but it’s still annoying.

I also have a feature request

1. Add Windows emulators. There are no Windows emulators not even DOS. I’m not asking to be able to playing games released from 2020 and beyond. But why can’t we at the very least play Windows games from 1990 to 2009?

Newer iPhones and iPads are powerful enough to play any Windows game released between 1990 and 2009. So hardware shouldn’t be an issue,

by Luis E Cortez

I love using this app I always have and always will be unless delta steps up their game and add more emulators to their app. Anyways my problem right now is playing Nintendo 64 games on this app. First there was a crash bug where every time you want to play a Nintendo 64 game the second time it will crash which has been fixed as of right now but now there is another bug where on Mario kart 64 it doesn’t show the racers or tracks. Also on countless other Nintendo 64 games! PLEASE fix this. I’m talking to you developers of this app. Please and I will give this app a 5 star rating that it deserves!

by MagmaDragoonX4

RetroArch is petty good and easy to use, but some things needs more work. The mobile controls are very unresponsive, especially the d-pad and I found myself hitting the start button on accident many times because it is too close to the A button. An option to move the buttons around and adjust the size of them will definitely fix these issues. One other issue I have is that when I try to play Saturn games on RetroArch they don’t work at all even though I am choosing the right option to play my Saturn game, Saturn Bomberman, on RetroArch . I don’t know if other people are having the same problem, but this is something that need to get fixed in an update.

by Rapidemboar

Personally I think this is quite a rough implementation compared to the Delta emulator that released a few weeks ago, but it otherwise plays games just as well as Delta if not better in some cases. this app isn’t as pretty and isn’t integrated as well with iOS devices, with my biggest gripe being that I can’t add games from my iCloud drive into playlists, and have to sift through my files to open games. While Delta’s a bit easier to use, this app offers more settings and a much wider variety of systems to emulate, so if you want to play N64, Sega, or arcade games on your phone you’ve come to the right place. Personally, the big draw for me is support for RetroAchievements, which allows you to unlock community-made achievements as you play. This will definitely be my emulator of choice for the foreseeable future, though I’d be really happy to see some quality-of-life improvements down the line.

by Lightspeed5264

I love this emulator, it’s really good, but there’s two big issues I hope are taken care of:

1. Button issues. Sometimes when playing, the buttons are so close that I move in directions I don’t want to move.

2. Stylus issues. I play DS games, but sometimes those games require Stylus usage. Sadly the emulator doesn’t really support Styluses that well. It treats it like I’m using a mouse, and only lets me use it when tapping things. If it could let me use my iPad’s touchscreen, that would be great.

by Eight Bitt

I like this emu, but really needs customizable control options. Need sega genesis control layout the 3 button at least. Lots of games require holding two buttons at once like fast run and jump. Always accidentally hit pause every other second because it is too close. Need to be able to move and resize buttons, a basic must for all emus. The controls are a big issue holding this back from 5 stars.

by Jayce Golden

I’ve noticed the Ppsspp core is out of date and cannot play a lot of games, but I am happy to play midnight club 3 and gran turismo perfectly. Also the PlayStation 1 bios don’t work, atleast on my end. Other than that great app, finally don’t have to worry about constantly being side loading

by Cr4zyB3n

I’m messing around with a Sonic 3 and Knuckles ROM, messing with all the core settings. Lots of fun to see what happens if I try to do game glitches at 500% CPU speed. Something I noticed is that you need a controller to operate the menu for some menu drivers. I was stuck playing 2048 and had to reinstall RetroArch .

This emulator has everything though, and I highly recommend it.

by EdiPhone

Great to see this on RetroArch store. After some brief subjective testing, controller latency w/ a DS4 on NES core on iPad mini seems large and variable, making platformers and other time-sensitive games difficult.

by Hammerbrocm

First, put your rom into the files of this app (personally, i have my own folder dedicated to roms) then import your rom using "import content" if your rom is a rom hack, you might not be able to import it (i said might because this app sometimes detects very popular rom hacks) instead, choose load content and then select the rom, and it will appear in your history. if a rom crashes when loading, you probably need the bios file for it! search something along the lines of "beetle saturn this app core" and there should be a libretro site with the core's information, scroll down and you will see the name of the bios file for the core, (you should only need the bios files that aren't optional) then you can look up the name of the bios file and find it online. (probably on internet archive) anyways, this app is a great emulator and ive been using lakka on my nintendo switch too! easily a game changer and beats delta!

by DoctorBodie

Only disappointment so far is that I can’t get sound working on the Atari 800. Hopefully that will be fixed soon or I can find a workaround with the settings.

RetroArch may not be the easiest to setup and navigate, but after selecting the option to have the user interface mimic a PlayStation it became much easier for me to see and understand what to do. I think RetroArch is brilliant and the developer(s) should be commended on the effort and time this took to make. Perhaps I should alter my title to beggars can’t be choosers because RetroArch is still awesome. It’s completely worth taking the time to familiarize yourself with this app because it’s full of features and you can customize them your hearts desire.

by Airplane🦮

This is my favorite app for emulation, I love everything about it, but this iOS port has a few problems. First of all, it annoys me so much when I have to change from d pad to joystick, I understand there is limited screen space but it would be incredibly helpful if you could add a thing like what the steam link app has where you can customize the button layout. Other than that my only other problem is that the core options are limited. Thank you so much for bringing this app to iOS!

by Nick Antolos

this app has become THE emulation solution for Apple TV, and the issues others have with it are limitations of tvOS. It’s a shame we can’t see newer systems supported (PS2, Wii, etc), but this is because of RetroArch Store rules blocking JIT. Since the Apple TV version relies on cloud syncing for persistent save storage, it would be helpful if it supported more backends than WebDAV, particularly compatibility with S3 or iCloud if possible would be helpful. Regardless, very impressive port, and it even works with the Siri Remote if you’re playing a game that could be played that way.

by Aglowroket

I have been around the emulator world for a while now and I enjoy and understand a lot about emulators. I tried getting some of my friends to start emulating games, and I taught them how to dump roms and gave them some devices to start dumping. However, what I didn’t expect, is that they didn’t know how to use the emulator. I am not saying there is anything wrong with the emulator, no, it is wonderful. I am just saying that if you are just starting out emulator, learn about it before you start. You need to know what roms, isos, bios, and all the different file types and names for different things are. Also, please don’t start pirating games. If yall start pirating, nintendo may get apple to take down the emulators. Get your roms from an actual cartridge, don’t just download off the internet. Anyway, tldr: learn what emulators are before you try to emulate. Don’t pirate games.

by JgPapi

You can play PSP games on your phone, I downloaded The Family Guy video game and it’s bring back so many memories. I think it could use some improvement tho like the buttons are sometimes unresponsive but over all, you can connect your ps4 remote to your phone and play all the games with a controller! so it’s a win win in my book🙏 Amazing, I have this app on my PC too, literally the same app but on your phone.

by MasterOfMangoes

Hey! First of all; love RetroArch ! But I noticed after I connected my Xbox remote via Bluetooth I can no longer tap to use the menus anymore and can only navigate via Xbox remote. Can you please fix? :) Also, any chance that a Dolphin core or emulator for Wii/GameCube to be included soon? Also also; I noticed that when AirPlaying or streaming that it does not utilize the entire TV space or go into AirPlay screen mode, that Delta, does. Any chance for that to be a QOL improvement made? Thank you! And keep up the amazing work!

by Headsrop

Great app only Quam is you need need need to make external storages findable in the directory, some of us have 64 Gb.

Copying the game from the drive to the iPhone is tedious it waste space, time, storage health and will require you to constantly delete games just to add other ones. (Depending on if your 64gb and less)

If there is a way to change the downloads directory to the external drive and I’m just to moronic, please let me know developers I really enjoy RetroArch existing.

by Wooien

Having this app on RetroArch Store is a game changer. I’ve always wanted my own arcade cabinet but have been put off by the costs of building or buying a cabinet. Having the Finalburn Neo core lets me have the arcade experience wherever I want, and native support for different controller setups makes this a pick-up-and-play experience. I 100% recommend this to anyone looking to play retro games. Be sure to enable run ahead in the latency settings as this is what really sets this app apart from different emulation software.

by Travelingtanuki

People can nitpick and complain all they want about little issues here or there but I want to remind everyone just a few short months ago we were stuck playing nothing but MOBBAGE games. TY to the devs of these wonderful “tool” 😉programs bc they really work so amazing. Something inside of me warms up every time I boot up a classic I loved or missed/ didn’t get a chance to play. TYSM for brightening our AppStore with non p2w content. This really makes mobile feel like a valid gaming platform 🫶

by Random Blyat

I have tried downloading this app with a tool that installs ipa file on iPhone using the iPhone itself but temporarily and then you have to install it each time it stops working which is kinda frustrating and I don’t know if there is another tool that permanently installs ipa files with the same device so I’m really thankful for this release i didn’t even think i would see emulation in general on iOS thank you so much

by Akira_808

I wasn’t expecting this, but I was overjoyed when I saw this. I was pleasantly surprise that there was Sega Saturn emulation, and it works well. I also copied my Atari 2600 ROMs, and they all worked perfectly! I would like to see Sega Dreamcast emulation implemented, as I want to play Virtua Fighter 3tb again. The cheats work for the most part. However, cheats for the Sega Saturn don’t work at all. I verified them on website and they’re all correct. When I activate them, there’s no effect. Great job for bringing this app to iOS!!

by Mdog816

Works well when you know what you’re doing, frustrating when you don’t but the payoff is totally worth it. With controller support and all the features that retro arch provides, honestly it’s a game changer and can provide way more customization than Delta, though if you want something short sweet and easy, Delta is a better choice. this app is for those that want a wide choice of content and though it requires a bit of a learning curve, it grows to be more intuitive the more you tinker with it.

by TR1ST4Nism

I have been using this app since it was available on the PS Vita, and have used it on countless devices since then. this app is EASILY the most configurable emulation front-end there is. There are so many options when it comes to themes, controller customization, shaders and filters, save games, retro achievements, and so much more! A must-have app for any emulation enthusiast.

by AngelCityLakers

No more sketchy workarounds needed. Apple finally gave emulators the green light for App Store distribution they’ve always deserved. this app in all its glory is finally here, directly on RetroArch Store. This is the ultimate video game emulation application, with amazing compatibility, speed and functionality across a slew of different retro video game systems. It supports all iOS controllers and has a ton of settings you can configure to get games playing exactly the way you want them to. There may be easier to navigate apps out there like Delta for specific game systems, but this app is unmatched in scope when it comes to its capabilities and features as an emulator. If you want your retro game fix on iOS, this app is the only app you’ll ever need.

by Alucard2126

Right out of the box, this application has worked just as well as the handheld I have it installed on. My fedora is off to those that put the time into developing and putting RetroArch on this store. You made my inner teenager very happy.

by NerdyErnie

An amazing emulator to go along with delta for it doesnt have. This one also, as opposed to gamma, has no ads, no data tracking and is already good to play with controller support. This is magnificent, highly recommend!

by -=jArViS=-

I’ve been a this app user for several years now on other platforms, and was always jealous of my Android-toting friends, knowing they had access to a mobile version that eluded me. It was the sole remaining reason I ever considered moving away from iOS… and now, I guess I’m a Lifer. Well played, Apple.

by JohnW.W

RetroArch takes some setting up to get running. Not a big deal if you have used RetroArch on other platforms. iOS does not give you as much freedom, so there are some annoyances as well. At the end of the day RetroArch plays ps1 games. As well as older systems. Handheld and home consoles.

by Carolina_Heart

It's got most of the settings available as the PC version, doesn't feel stripped back at all, and it even has RetroAchievements support! The mobile UI controls are great for the genres I play (JRPGs and strategy games and VNs) and especially good for DS emulation for obvious reasons. The UI isn't as intrusive as delta and is translucent

by **890

this app is probably one of the oldest front ends and it’s been a main stay for years. And for good reason. The devs are always on the front of maintaining the cores and at this point in its life it’s extremely feature rich.

Sure it takes a little bit to learn how to navigate but it’s so worth the effort to learn.

by Wolfmonster

This is a great port for older systems! It takes a little getting used to but plenty of tutorials online to get you going!

Can’t wait for the Apple TV version to get Mame 2010 core. PLEASE MAKE THAT HAPPEN!! it will make RetroArch complete.

Either that or more customizable cores to install on the Apple TV version. Thank you, and keep up the great work! Great job!

by Vfdcfghtenrtyy

I never thought I’d see the day when this is real

by Nate1986

Plays most retro games on multiple systems. At least on iOS there’s nothing else like it. I respect and appreciate the delta app and the gamma app for being trailblazers on RetroArch Store but this is the goat clearly and from my preliminary test it works great!

by Cmerrifield

I’m an idiot and gave this a one star for crashing, then realized I was trying to open a zip file. Unzip your roms people!

Finally. Love this app and this works beautifully!!

by Lyrics Are My Scripture

I haven’t had a chance to try it and will update this when I have.
But for now, I love you!

by Wanda@215

So many extra features you can do including widescreen some upscaling really amazing

by Scurrydog

Been using for a long time and this iOS port is perfection. Grab a backbone one or other controller and have a blast!

by S Hasidism

I was gonna kill myself then this game fixed my life, but I wish there was GameCube compatibility

by RedNanaki

Changing the ui to xmb is so much better and looks so good

by Oooolool

I’m having a fun time with this emulator good job not having ads! You’re a winner

by UESC

Thanks for bringing this app to the iPhone! I can’t wait to dive in and get things set up!!

by Drink2that

Not sure how this is real but it’s real and it works! Daniel! I love you man!

by Islamhoodmoments

for 5+ years now have been patiently waiting for apple to be forced to support this

by NoKuraiShij

I’ve been using this app for a couple years now and I’m glad to see it’s finally on the AppStore. Apple finally loosing its grip a little bit. I still use delta emulator when I want to play Pokémon, but when I have a controller with me for whatever reason, I go to this app as that’s where the rest of my game library is. Pokémon for Delta’s touch controls, this app for everything else. Seems fair to me.

by Etech4

I certainly wasn’t expecting this app in the AppStore, but it’s here! It works exactly as you’d expect. You can load and play games exactly as you would on a computer. You can even use the Mesen NES core to load custom HD packs for NES games. I highly recommend this emulator. Just one thing, maybe later you can add some MAME cores? There are some games that I’m not able to play with the current arcade core.

by ProtomanJ

Many people including myself have waited very long for this to arrive officially on the iOS AppStore. It may be a little overwhelming at first but once you understand the interface, how cores operate, and all its other options this quickly becomes the go to front end for retro gamers. Such a treat for those of us that are stuck in the Apple ecosystem ( blue bubbles ).